In 1785, the General Assembly of South Carolina authorized the establishment of a public market in the town of Winnsboro. This market house was a square, wooden building, painted yellow, and was topped with a belfry. Robert Cathcart donated to the town his old duck-pond, a small piece of land in the middle of Washington Street, as a site for a new market house. The town council accepted the land and petitioned the legislature to erect the new market-house and town clock. The erection of the town clock began in 1822. Winnsboro's town clock came from France in the 1830's and has kept cadence through history. It is possibly oldest continuously-running clock in America. In 1875 it was found necessary to repair the clock tower, and the present tower was erected.